Stage Design
Noises Off by Michael Frayn
Noises Off is two plays folded cunningly into one. A hapless acting company's efforts to mount a play – a traditional sex farce called Nothing On – devolve into an offstage farce of its own. At the disastrous final performance, when the two farces collide, doors slam with precision timing, confusions and convolutions run rampant amid sexual dalliances and mysterious plates of sardines. The cheesy two-story touring set, a typical example of the English set-builder's craft, rotated on a turntable to reveal the backstage shenanigans.